Chapter 19: Sounds Of The Past
“Every time we saw the A.I. Moon appear in the sky, it was as if the biblical verses of Revelation came to being.”
Richard Biblis, former Secretary of Protection, United Earth Parliament, 2101
The Sea Wolf had completed its jump into Venusian space, and was positioning itself at the disembark point that Von Haufsberg had provided them. From there they would begin unloading crew onto shuttles and send them on to the orbiting planetary station, Venus-1.
The planetary station, also known as a superstation, was the size of a small moon and had its own residential, commercial, and industrial populations living on it. One side of the station housed the main industrial complex of the Venusian Initiative, where gases were siphoned from the Venusian atmosphere and processed, then refined.
The other side housed the commercial and residential complex, which were mainly populated by tourists wanting to visit the many attractions and shopping extravaganzas hosted there.
After completing a tactical analysis of the area, Julius ordered the unloading of the crew to begin. The departures would be closely monitored by the bridge crew and by Wolf Squadron as a precaution.
He had caught Von Haufsberg in many lies in the past and despite Laina’s apparent camaraderie with him, he never trusted him. But he was one of the few dealers in black-market goods that were still surviving, making their involvement with him unfortunately mandatory.
They had a full cargo hold of goods that had to be turned over, not to mention picking up a graviton coil that was desperately needed for the ship’s operation.
Julius himself had decided to stay on board the Sea Wolf; he had no desire to mingle with Von Haufsberg, and he simply did not trust leaving his ship alone. Laina would handle the negotiations with Von Haufsberg, haggle on price over drinks, and that would be that.
Once Julius received word from Laina that the transaction with Von Haufsberg was complete, he would give the order to execute the ruse for the emergency recall of the crew—unfortunately cutting short their pleasurable stay on Venus-1.
He headed to Laina’s quarters, where he met up with Murdock, who was holding a small device in his hand that he gave to him.
“It’s all done. Here’s the trigger,” Murdock said.
Julius inspected the device, which looked rather antiquated. It had a simple latch with a button in it.
“You just flip the latch, and push the button,” Murdock explained. “They’re on a ten-second timer.”
“I don’t want a timer on it,” Julius said.
“No choice. The timers are embedded in the detonators, and I don’t have enough spare parts to change it. I was lucky enough to be able to rig this up at all.”
“Very well,” Julius said, stuffing the remote into his jacket. “I guess it will do. Are you going down to the station?”
“Yes. I need to make sure that Haufsberg doesn’t sell Laina a rubber biscuit instead of a graviton coil. I’ll send you the signal when we’re ready to head back.” Murdock gave a grin. “Well, actually, I’ll send the signal after I have a crack at the slots.”
“After the deal is done,” Julius said, eyeing him, “not a moment later.”
“You really take the fun out of everything, Julius. I was kidding anyway, asshole—why you so edgy?”
Julius sighed. “I hate dealing with that bastard—the sooner we get this done, the better it will be for all of us. Speaking of which, you better get going—Laina’s already on her way there.”
Murdock headed out, leaving Julius in alone in Laina’s quarters. The smell was thankfully gone, but there were some ugly stains on some of the walls and floor; no doubt it would irritate Laina to no end when she returned.
He took a glance at the A.I. conduit. The faded paint and old wiring showed its age, but despite that, it still had an exotic beauty about it inside the crystal. Julius thought back to the dream he had, being back on old Earth with Daryl again. It had been a long time since he’d seen or spoken to Daryl.
What would he be doing now? he wondered.
The last time he looked him up, Daryl was still on Earth working a bottom-feeder type job for the corporations—but how long ago was that? Thirty years? He could not even remember. It pained him to have abandoned him; but UEP Enforcers gave him no choice.
The dream he had was so clear to him—and the memories, like they happened yesterday. Even now, he could remember it all with crystal clarity—a clarity he had not possessed in nearly a century. He looked at the machine again and wondered if the dreams were just dreams… or were they real recollections? They couldn’t be; it was just impossible. The whole talk of the A.I. was poisoning his logic.
Julius started to walk out of the room, but gave the machine one last glance. Pointing the device in his hand at the conduit, he said, “One wrong move, Chorus. Just one.”
He paused for a moment, but there was no apparent response from it, so he left the room.